High voter turnout makes direct democracy more difficult

[TexasTowelie]

That record number of Arizonans who turned out to vote this year has a dark side for direct democracy: It’s going to be harder for voters to propose their own laws or get rid of ones they don’t like.

And that poses a threat to possible petition drives to ban “dark money,” increase education funding and find more transportation dollars – and any voter-led effort to block an anticipated new bid by lawmakers to expand vouchers.

The problem is that state law bases the number of signatures required for referenda and initiatives is linked not to the number of people who live in Arizona, or even to the number of people who have registered to vote. Instead the threshold is determined by how many people voted in the most recent gubernatorial race.

Four years ago, when Doug Ducey won against Democrat Fred DuVal and a host of minor party candidates, the total votes in that race were 1,506,416.

Read more: https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2018/11/17/high-voter-turnout-makes-direct-democracy-more-difficult/

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. This is not a bad thing; voter turnout is why we were able to turn the state.

If it takes a few more signatures to get something on the ballot, that's not an issue either; it has been far to easy to enact destructive laws and amendments here.